Broadway Watch - The Wedding Singer

The Wedding Singer Music by Matthew Sklar; Book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy; Lyrics by Chad Beguelin; Based on the 1998 film written by Tim Herlihy. Directed by John Rando Al Hirschfeld Theatre Opened 27th April 2006 Extracts from various reviewers: “News flash: If you can't laugh at the 1980s, you're a stick in the mud! “An odd message for a musical, no? Yet there's no other discernible point to The Wedding Singer, the flashy, facile, and futile new show at the Al Hirschfeld. It spends two and a half hours mocking the trends, fads, and foibles of a decade, in hopes that will be enough to anchor a brightly colored, surface-level musical comedy. “It's not.” “What's been forgotten by librettists Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy - like everyone involved in this robotically entertaining enterprise, from director John Rando on down - is that cheeky references are no substitute for wit.” “In the original 1998 film… the 1985 setting was merely background, not the raison d'etre. The characters were living in that year… but not continually reminding us how silly the '80s were and how glad we should be that they're over.” “In the musical, no one has time for much else... essentially gone is the story's underlying tension, generated in the film by Robbie's need for emotional stability but apparent indifference toward financial security.” “Instead, the authors satisfy themselves with a molded-plastic show bursting with more quotation marks than an English textbook.” “Benanti, at least, can manage without the help. She taps into the warming, Belinda Carlisle charm of her songs to develop a disarming simplicity and purity for Julia that belies the show's pervasive falseness.” “Lynch is a passable singer and a fine comedian… but he's no actor, and his attempts to communicate Robbie's heartbroken plight read as far more cartoonish than he undoubtedly intends.” Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray “If there can be summer movies, why can't there be summer musicals? The Wedding Singer sure is one. It's a nice, lightweight show that's going to bring a great deal of pleasure to a great number of people, especially couples who are dating and are either contemplating or planning marriage.” “The music is tasty bubble gum but, like that sticky substance, it loses it flavor as the night wears on… It seem that the authors of Hairspray were more in love with 1960s music than Sklar and lyricist Beguelin are with the songs of the '80s; The Wedding Singer has a feeling of condescension that isn't found in that other show.” “…the book writers have done a nice job of creating two nice characters.” “Aren't we always hearing how people should get to know each other as friends before they fall in love? Well, Robbie and Julia do, and that makes The Wedding Singer so much stronger than those hundreds of musicals where love at first sight is all that a bride and groom have going for them. In fact, Beguelin and Herlihy are well aware of that trite convention, and they make a nifty joke about it.” “The production is extraordinarily fortunate to have Laura Benanti on hand. She has an I'll-be-a-good-sport smile and a lovely, caring demeanor that well serves Julia… However, Stephen Lynch as Robbie may send audiences to their Playbills to see if they missed the little slip of paper announcing that, at this performance, the role is being played by an understudy.” “John Rando has directed the show efficiently… Rob Ashford's choreography suffers the same fate as Sklar's music; it's got to be '80s, so it's got to be ludicrous. The production numbers that really land are the solos and duets, which one wouldn't expect from a show like this.” “The Wedding Singer almost always hits the target, though it almost always misses the bull's-eye. Robbie Hart almost certainly won't stick around as long as Roxie Hart has, but this show may very well have the staying power to be next summer's musical, too.” Theater Mania – Peter Filichia “A guitar pick, a sweat towel, a bouquet, a garter, a light dusting of glitter or petals—these are the airborne goodies a few lucky theatergoers might walk away with from The Wedding Singer, the eager-to-be-loved new Broadway musical version of the sneakily charming 1998 Adam Sandler film vehicle. The rest of us are likely to walk away from this pleasant but pointless tuner with an embarrassing, almost unimaginable thought: that what we really wanted to hear was more Dead Or Alive, Spandau Ballet and Kajagoogoo.” “…what's the point of wallowing in the guilty pleasures of a dubious musical era with simulated junk? It's like a vending machine stocked with RC Cola.” “Sandler's Robbie was a laconic loser in a seedy dead-end career who had the ironic grace to laugh at himself, which made him irresistible to another wayward heart, Julia, played by Drew Barrymore. In the musical, though, Robbie is a mildly quirky, clean-cut troubadour, and Laura Benanti's perky cater-waitress, Julia, comes off a bit like Laverne or Shirley's more subdued sister. What's the problem? These two kids are made for each other, and their bland romance, which reaches its highest point during a giddy trip to the mall, doesn't evoke the '80s so much as the sock-hop '50s.” “By the finale, The Wedding Singer has pulled out every stop in the '80s organ, imagining a Vegas wedding chapel full of celebrity look-alikes, including Ronnie and Nancy. And while I must salute a show with the cornball chutzpah to have Reagan quip to Tina Turner, "Miss Turner, knock down this putz," in good conscience I can only recommend this show to diehard fans of shoulder-pads, leg warmers and the video for "Thriller."” Broadway.Com – Rob Kendt Next Broadway Musical opening – Hot Feet – 30th April